580 
ME. H. F. BLANFOED ON THE WINDS OF NOETHEEN INDIA. 
from between north and east. Through July and August the south-west wind, the 
undiverted monsoon, maintains a very decided mastery, but slackens in September and 
ceases in October, when the winter monsoon regains its supremacy. 
AraJcan Coast . — Although geographically a part of the Burmese peninsula, this coast 
may fitly be treated as belonging to the Indian area in respect of the winds, since those 
of the lower stratum of its atmosphere are more influenced by the heat and cold of 
Bengal than by any alternations of temperature &c. in the interior of the eastern 
peninsula. This is owing to the mountain-chain of the Arakan Yoma, which runs 
from the eastern end of Cachar, parallel with the coast, at an average distance of 40 or 
50 miles, down to Cape Negrais, and is of an average height of 4000 or 5000 feet. 
It would seem, from the wind Tables here given, that the greater part of the air-currents 
at Chittagong and Akyab are in transitu to or from the Gangetic delta ; but it is probable 
that a certain portion of them make their way up or down the river-valleys that drain 
the western slopes and spurs of the Yoma, and, crossing the low ranges of the Chitta- 
gong and Cachar Hill tracts, form part of the Assam branch of the monsoons. 
Chittagong is situated at the south-eastern extremity of the Gangetic delta, about 
the junction of the great Megna estuary with the sea. To the east and north-east 
extends the tract of low hills above referred to, and on the very margin of which the 
station is built, a strip of alluvium about three miles broad intervening between the 
hills and the sea. Chittagong is 140 miles south-east from Dacca, and 240 east by 
north from Saugor Point. 
Akyab is 150 miles further down the coast, at the point where the Koladyne river 
enters the sea. The station is built on a low point of land between the estuary and 
the Bay of Bengal, and the harbour formed by the estuary is further enclosed by a 
group of rocky islands to the southward. 
At Chittagong there is no very decided preponderance of any one wind-direction on 
the average of the year; but north-west winds are less common than others, and on the 
whole southerly winds are in excess of northerly, in the proportion of 42 - 5 to 30 per 
cent. As in the Gangetic delta, the annual rotation is retrograde from November to 
the following September (in this case through more than two thirds of the compass), 
and the change from the characteristic direction of the summer to that of the winter 
monsoon takes place somewhat abruptly in the month of October. In the cold-weather 
months the average direction is from between north and north-west, but less westerly 
by about a point than at Dacca; northerly elements preponderate till the end of 
February, that is to say a month later than either at Dacca or Saugor Island. Between 
February and June the wind works round gradually to the southward, and in the latter 
month it backs further to about south-east by south, which is its average direction as 
long as the south-west monsoon prevails over the Bay. At all times of the year the 
mean direction is modified by land- and sea-breezes. The average velocity is more uni- 
form than at inland stations. When greatest, viz. in June, it is less than twice as great 
